


Approval

by lydiduh



Category: Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 09:46:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2846585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lydiduh/pseuds/lydiduh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little study on Joe's reaction to his son's choice of a partner, takes place a few years before Vic's prison stay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Approval

**Author's Note:**

> I came to Reservoir Dogs for the gay, and stayed for the more gay, and this is where my life is now. Thanks to Ficmonger for beta-ing this.

Joe Cabot inspired a level of fear that Vic, using only his own deadbeat father for reference, had never experienced growing up. And there was some part of him that almost welcomed the feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach whenever he was called in for one-on-one meetings with the Cabot family patriarch. He figured maybe it made him feel normal-- having a normal experience that most kids who've fucked up can expect to have. What was worrying him on this occasion was that he had no idea what he'd done this time, and climbing the steps up to Joe's office his brain was going into overdrive trying to find anything that he might have done recently that would be bad enough to inspire a personal chewing-out. Things had actually been pretty cool lately-- even boring, Vic thought. It had been one of those rare dry spells at work for the past few weeks, not so much so that people start worrying, but enough that everyone had been able to breath and relax for once. Vic had been spending all of his time with Eddie, and he hadn't done anything too terrible that Eddie wasn't doing right alongside him.  


Joe was already waiting for Vic when Vic let himself into the office. He didn't look angry, but he didn't look happy either. He didn't look anything.

"Sit down, Vic. I'll get you a drink. You can smoke-- but for Christ's sake use an ash tray," he snapped over his shoulder from the bar. Vic had a habit of tamping his cigarette out on whatever was convenient without thinking about it, and wasn't very careful about it whether he was in a back-alley full of old milk crates or Joe Cabot's expensive mahogany furnished office. He obediently drew the ash tray towards him before lighting up a cigarette. Joe was still completely unreadable, but he wasn't yelling, which either meant that this _wasn't_ a chewing-out or whatever Vic couldn't remember doing was so bad that it required a build-up.

Two glasses were set on opposite sides of the desk, and Joe settled into his chair shortly after. He folded his hands across his stomach and lay a steely stare on Vic, just long enough for it to become hard for Vic to keep looking like he was paying attention. Vic knew better than to jump the conversation, just waited it out. Luckily his mind had always been good at occupying itself in a pinch. It wondered how big the elephant those tusks came from was, if Joe has guys who take down elephants personally, what you have to do to get on _that_ team. He made a note to ask Joe about elephant hunting, almost did it right then, but then Joe started talking again and the thought went away.

"Don't think I don't know," Joe said finally, his voice a low, even growl. "About you and Eddie."

"Ah," Vic said. So it was something that he'd done with Eddie that was the issue. "What'd we do?"

"Don't play dumb, I know you two aren't just reading comic books and playing jacks every time you spend the night," Joe said with a snort. "Maybe at one point, but not now, for sure. My son is talented at a lot of things but subtlety was never his strong point, and you may as well be a sack of bricks upside the head. There's only so much horsing around you can do before it stops just seeming chummy."

Despite himself, Vic's mouth was dry by the time Joe stopped talking. " _Shit._ " This was hardly in his list ways he figured this talk would go, and it knocked him for a loop. He realized dimly that he was no longer holding his cigarette, and he fumbled to grab it from the floor before it threatened Joe's expensive oriental rug. "That's-- uh, that's just playing around. It's nothing serious, Joe, I swear, you say the word and it's as good as done with."

"If that's what you think of it, you may as well grab your things and hope I never see you around here again," Joe said pointedly. "You don't have to play coy here, Vic. Consider this a sort of interview. I just want to have a conversation with you. Make sure Eddie's got his head in the right place about you before this goes any further than it already has."

Vic's eyebrows retreated up his forehead all at once: "You want me to keep seeing your son...?" he said slowly after a beat.

"I want you to treat my son decent," Joe said. "You seem like a good enough guy, Vic. I like the Hell out of you, you've got a lot of potential in this business and I can see why Eddie cares for you-- but sometimes it's hard for me to get a read on you."

Vic shrugged at this, understanding in a distant way. Joe continued: "I just want it to be out in the open that if there's any monkey business with you-- if you rough my son up, or if there are any other girls, any other guys that my son doesn't know about, it's not going to end well for you. Understood?"

Vic took a long pause at this, making sure he'd heard Joe right, and then broke into an easy smile, unable to keep from barking out a surprised laugh. "Understood," he coughed out, nearly a years' worth of wondering how this conversation would go down uncoiling in his stomach all at once. He caught Joe's stern eye, and quickly readjusted his face into something halfway serious. "Understood, Joe. Promise."

Joe's crinkled face broke, finally, into an affectionate smile. "Good man."

***

Surprisingly, things didn't change much after Vic's meeting with Joe. It wasn't weird. Vic didn't mention the meeting to Eddie for a while. He'd already been living mostly in the Cabot mansion for the past year-- at first it was a sleepover, then it was convenient for work, then his parents were fighting or his brother something-or-other and he couldn't go home, and eventually it was habit-- but over the next few weeks he got his last few things from his parents' dive and made the stay permanent without much fuss.

"Joseph. Knows about us," Vic drawled unprompted one night when he and Eddie were curled around each other on the couch after everyone else had gone to bed. There was some sort of dense crime movie being ignored on the TV

"Shit-- what?!"

"Yeah," Vic said. "Few weeks ago. He told me. Had a sit down with him."

"A sit down, the fuck d'you _mean_ a sit down?" Eddie barked. "A few _weeks_ ago and you didn't think to tell me?!"

"Figured you'd freak out," Vic said. "...Like you're about to do right now."

"Of course I'm freaking out, Vic, Daddy's gonna fuckin--"

"Eddie-- It was a few weeks ago," Vic waved his hand as if brushing away the tantrum Eddie was trying to build up. Eddie's face was glowing red; Vic knew that he was either going to lose his temper or start panicking for real in a minute. "If he wanted you to pray away the gay would I be sitting here right now with all my shit in your house? It's cool."

"Fuck," Eddie said, not exactly relaxing, but not getting worse either, which was a good sign. "Fuck-- _shit_ , so. So what, he approves of this now or something? I didn't even know he-- _talk_ to me, man, what did he actually say?"

"Said he wants to make sure I'm good enough for you. Told him I was. He seemed okay with it."

Eddie punched him weakly on the arm, depleting whatever remained of his temper flare in the process. "So what you're saying is we've been sneaking around for two weeks for no reason."

"What, you want to make out in front of your dad? Because I don't want to make out in front of your dad, Eddie."

"It'd just be nice to know I'm not going to get my ass kicked for slipping up-- _shit_ , man, put out your cigarette," Eddie hissed, slapping his own chest hastily to put out the pillar of still-hot ash that had dropped from the end of Vic's cigarette.

"It's fine, I've got it," Vic said coolly.

"No, you _don't_ got it, you're getting ash all over me," Eddie said crossly. "That shit hurts and you're fucking up all of my shirts. That's probably how Daddy knew, fuck, he knows _I'm_ not that sloppy with my cigarettes."

"Quit being a fucking bitch about it," Vic said lazily, but did eventually tamp out his cigarette, waiting just long enough to make it seem like his idea. "He said you care about me," he said, flashing a taunting, toothy grin at Eddie.

"Shows what he knows. You know I just like you for your body, Toothpick."

"Figured," Vic said, running his fingers up the back of Eddie's neck and tugging him into a kiss.

  


  



End file.
